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Snow Patrol‘s new album, A Hundred Million Suns, shows all of the strengths of these great musicmen. (a) It has the overall, familiar SP sense of intimacy, (b) with still some great, vintage radio hit songs and (c) above all a silent, but clear artistic evolution towards a broader spectrum in the closing 15 minutes, three-part song The Lightning Strike.

I had to play it loud however to really feel the album, to get all the enlightening background sounds and effects, the intimate detail voices and the acoustic guitars gently embracing the electrical riffs.

Maybe, just maybe, it misses a song like Run, that still gets me in tears. Although e.g. Lifeboats certainly also gets to me. And of course, a duet of the upmost emotional tension with a great female singer like Martha Wainwright cannot be repeated.

The connection with Bloc Party‘s newest pearl is not only the element of Intimacy but also the producer: Jacknife Lee. And, not to forget, the fact that both records are brilliant (like >100.000.000 suns). So far for the similarities between the 2 works of recording.

Bloc Party has not just explored new electronic horizons. They’ve seemlessly integrated it into their already distinct songs and sound. Looping, sampling, repetitive voices sound as if they’ve always been there. I love it, but I still have a slight preference for the more rock oriented Weekend In The City.